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Islander releases picture book about Vashon

Ann Leda Shapiro has written and illustrated a book about Vashon Island.

— image credit: Amelia Heagerty

Author, artist and acupuncturist Ann Leda Shapiro published a book last month about the Island she calls home, a publication that she hopes can become a tool for social change. She’ll read from her book on Friday.

“My Island” introduces readers to Vashon through pictures and distilled words. The book, which is aimed at both children and adults, also addresses the issue of Glacier Northwest’s mine on Maury, which could “disturb the peace for both humans and whales” if its expansion goes forward, Shapiro wrote.

The author plans to mail copies of her self-published picture book to Gov. Chris Gregoire, state legislators and Glacier Northwest officials in hopes that they will be moved by her telling of the story of Vashon and the gravel pit that “resides within the left leg” of the Island, she said.

The New York native came to Vashon 16 years ago and was the Island’s only acupuncturist for a time.

Last week, she finished writing and illustrating a “crosscultural healing book for children,” she said, and is already looking forward to her next book, which will be about art and acupuncture.

Since her arrival on the Island, which Shapiro sometimes calls “Dancing Man,” the author has become passionate about the fight against Glacier Northwest’s expansion on the eastern rim of Maury Island.

To assist in the fight, she is donating a portion of the proceeds from sales of “My Island” to Preserve Our Islands, a nonprofit working to stop the spread of Glacier’s gravel mining and barging operations.

“I wanted to document the Island and to preserve it in a sense through pictures,” Shapiro said. “It’s a story of place.”

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